South Korea is on alert in case a skirmish with North Korea affects Yeonpyeong Island.

By MARTIN FACKLER


YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea - Sitting in front of his house, mending a fishing net with hands gnarled by years of pulling a living from the sea, Kim Sang-jin recalled the last time North and South Korea clashed militarily in the nearby Yellow Sea.

It was seven years ago, and the gunfire from the warships in the two-hour naval skirmish was close enough to rattle his windows, sending him and his wife ducking for cover. Now, with tensions escalating since the North’s nuclear test in May and the subsequent United Nations sanctions, he said he and other residents feared a new battle could erupt at any moment near this small South Korean-controlled island, which sits precariously off the coast of a hostile North Korea.

“We are always afraid, every day,” said Mr.Kim, 66, who lives two doors down from a neighborhood bomb shelter. “But you get used to living with the fear.”

South Korean military experts say that this lonely island, which is also claimed by the North, is the most likely place for that clash to occur, with the North possibly provoking a limited battle as part of its risky brinkmanship with the United States and other countries.

Yeonpyeong Island sits just about 3 kilometers from the so-called northern limit line, a watery extension of the demilitarized zone dividing the Koreas. It was the scene of two deadly sea battles in the past decade.

South Korea has since dispatched the first of its newest class of “patrol killer” guided-missile ships, designed especially for the close-range naval skirmishes that have taken place in these waters. The ship, the Yoon Young-ha, was named after one of six South Korean sailors killed in the second battle, in 2002, which the North won.

With that and the island’s garrison of some 1,000 marines on heightened alert, the South seems almost to be spoiling for a fight. At a recent ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the first of the two previous naval battles here, Lieutenant Commander Kwon Young-il vowed that if the North struck again, “we will sink them.”

Many of the island’s 1,600 civilian residents, mostly graying fishermen, said they felt caught in the middle. But they also say they are accustomed to the periodic escalations in tensions, which they describe as just another part of life on this disputed island.

Most said they were determined to go about their daily work of running their crab boats or tending fish traps along the island’s rocky coast.

“This is not the first time that North Korea has tested missiles and bombs,” said Kim Seung-ju, who heads the island’s branch of the national agricultural cooperative. “It doesn’t rattle us.”

Indeed, with its concrete bunkers, tank traps and lines of trenches, the island seems like a cold war time capsule. Islanders conduct monthly air raid drills and keep gas masks in their homes. Posters at local restaurants warn residents to be on the lookout for North Korean spy boats and submarines. Since the nuclear test, the island has stocked its 19 civilian bomb shelters with fresh water and dried noodles.

Many South Koreans seem eager to forget their belligerent neighbor to the north in a rush toward increasingly affluent living standards, even though the two Koreas have remained technically at war for more than a half-century.

Some islanders said the dangers here were often overstated. Many complained that the higher tensions have scared away tourists and brought phone calls from worried relatives asking why they insist on living in such a risky place. Some islanders even groused that the only invaders they had seen were the hordes of South Korean reporters and television crew members, who descend on them during every standoff with the North.

“When we see the TV crews, we know something is going on,” said Park Choon-geun, 49, a crab-boat captain. “Otherwise, we think life is normal here.”